


Reason #384 Why Tony Hates Magic (and Steve Learns to Dislike It as Well)

by AngeNoir



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Threesome - M/M/M, Trauma, Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-26
Updated: 2013-05-26
Packaged: 2017-12-13 00:33:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/817865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngeNoir/pseuds/AngeNoir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Magic only ever harms Tony, and for once, Steve and Bruce both agree with Tony's sentiment. He's hurting, reliving his worst memories, and he won't let them help, which means they need to enlist the help of someone else.</p><p>Pepper suggests War Machine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reason #384 Why Tony Hates Magic (and Steve Learns to Dislike It as Well)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ohcaptain1mycaptain](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ohcaptain1mycaptain/gifts).



> Written for the white elephant gift exchange on tumblr, for user [ohcaptain1mycaptain](http://ohcaptain1mycaptain.tumblr.com). The prompt was as follows: _avengers discover something about Tony’s past with Rhodey_. The pairings were as follows: _Stony (Steve/Tony) and Tony/Bruce_.
> 
> WARNINGS:  
> -implied past rape. dealing with past trauma.  
> -mature (no actual sex, not for the lack of trying on my part)  
> -implied homophobia  
> -underage relationship (Tony was 15, Rhodey was 20)

“He’s locked himself into his workshop,” Bruce said softly, and Steve probably should be the one on the phone with Pepper, considering that, of the weird arrangement he and Bruce and Tony share, he’s the head of it, the leader – and that’s not even taking into consideration that he’s team leader, and something’s wrong with one of his team.

Pepper’s voice was too soft and quiet for Steve to catch, but he could guess what she was saying. After all, she was out of country, halfway around the world, and sometimes it killed Steve that even a year into this, into being an Avenger, and six months into being a threesome of some sort with Bruce and Tony, he still doesn’t know Tony well enough to help him when something like this happens. But they couldn’t expect Pepper to drive over – or fly over, if she was in California and Tony was acting like an idiot again. Generally speaking, between Steve and Bruce they could handle Tony, and for the really large or terrifying freak outs, they called Pepper – and Pepper had always come. Only she couldn’t, now. And they were left facing the fact that Tony had been up for two and a half days straight, was existing mainly off of scotch and vodka, and had locked himself into his workshop full of dangerous machines and tools. All Steve could think about was coming up with a better contingency plan than ‘call Pepper.’

Though, to be fair, how often did his team get hit with a magical spell that made them relive one of their worst memories, over and over again? Steve had been lucky that it had just been Thor, Clint, and Tony, and not all of them. They couldn’t have a contingency plan for every stray bit of magic that would randomly get thrown at them during their fights.

Thor and Clint were still quiet and jumpy, but all in all they were dealing much better than Tony. Part of that was because they didn’t mind asking for help, and they leaned on those around them. Then again, Thor only needed to speak with Jane, and Clint had Natasha and Phil, and those who were their support could relate to what the bad memories were and help Thor and Clint out of it. And while they, as a team, had experienced some pretty bad things that gave Steve and Bruce some measure of rapport with Tony, Steve had a feeling that what Tony was reliving in his mind was not anything they knew about or could deal with. Even Natasha – the one who had profiled Tony in a scarily accurate manner (of course Steve read their files; they were his teammates, and he was their leader, and he needed to know everything he could about them because swear to god they were the most emotionally stunted group  _ever_ ) – even Natasha couldn’t figure out what was wrong with Tony. Clint had tried to joke Tony out of it, considering that they were close friends, and Thor had had to keep himself out of the room because his presence made Tony that much jumpier.

Then again, Steve’s presence made Tony jumpy as well, which wasn’t helping Steve keep calm at all. Bruce’s presence, Clint’s presence, Natasha’s presence, even Phil’s presence – Tony had tolerated all of them near him as they ran tests on his body to see if there was some biological properties to the spell that could be counteracted, but the minute Thor or Steve walked into the room Tony began hyperventilating.

Steve had never done well when he was unable to help his friends.

Finally Bruce hung up the phone and rubbed the back of his neck. He and Steve worked together, in tandem, to take care of Tony, each giving Tony something different, and while Bruce normally took charge in the bedroom, outside of it he bowed to Steve’s decisions. “She said to call James Rhodes. War Machine,” he added, when Steve squinted a bit at the name.

“War Machine?” Steve echoed, confused.

Bruce nodded. “He and Tony were friends while Tony was in college.”

Steve tried to stifle the immediate feeling of jealousy. “He knows how to help?”

“Pepper said he’s our best shot. Or we can keep trying on our own.” Bruce looked hopeful at that. “We don’t have to call him in.”

Steve though that that sounded absolutely perfect – except that neither Steve nor Bruce could override JARVIS and get into the lab. “Can Rhodes get into the workshop?”

Bruce hesitated. “I’m… not sure.”

“Did she give you his number?”

“Yeah.”

Steve rubbed the back of his neck and looked over at Thor, Natasha, and Clint, who had sat quietly as Bruce had made the call to Pepper.

“If it will help our brother-in-arms,” Thor said quietly, “we should do our utmost to contact him.”

When Steve nodded, Bruce dialed in the number and waited. Still fidgety, Clint stood up and moved to the fridge, opening the door and staring but not really seeing anything.

“Clint,” Natasha said quietly.

He turned to look at her, and she made a motion to the iced tea. The task made him look steadier, even as Bruce said into the phone, “I’m looking for Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes?”

“Yes, this is Bruce Banner? I was – well, this is going to sound a little strange, but you know Tony Stark, correct?”

Steve did his best not to fidget with impatience.

“Well – we had a run in with some magic and it didn’t affect Tony all that well. He’s – well, he’s locked himself in his workshop. Pepper can’t come, and he’s used the codes that keep us out. We were wondering, well—”

Bruce stopped, and a look of consternation came over his face before he nodded. “Yeah, sure. I mean, if it’s not too much trouble.”

With that, Bruce hung up and shrugged his shoulders at the expectant looks he got. “He said he’ll be here in twenty to thirty minutes; he’s on base somewhere and he’s got the War Machine armor.”

Steve nodded jerkily and left the kitchen, taking the elevator to the top floors, where Tony’s apartments and workshop were located. The workshop was still closed, of course, and most of the glass walls had gone opaque. Steve could just run through the glass – it was reinforced, but not against his shield, or against the Hulk, for that matter. But intruding in Tony’s privacy at this moment was… unthinkable. Unbearable, even. Steve just wanted someone to make sure Tony was okay, to help him come out of whatever memory was replaying over and over in his head. Through the single wall-to-ceiling glass panel that wasn’t darkened, he saw Tony moving feverishly around the Iron Man armor. Tony wasn’t even looking at him, but when Tony turned around Steve could see the barely concealed panic, the fear, in the back of those too-expressive eyes.

“Hey.”

Steve turned to see Bruce walking down the hallway. With a weak smile, Steve hitched one shoulder up and licked his lips. “You holding out okay?”

“Maybe better than you,” Bruce replied, but his voice was gentle, not mocking. Steve still felt the mild rebuke and tried to gather himself.

Bruce put a hand on Steve’s forearm, patting him carefully and tilting his head towards the one clear panel. “I know you care about him a lot more than you let on,” he said softly. “It’s not wrong for you to care about him. But he was scared – terrified. That type of fear isn’t from something like Thor’s fear of losing his family and friends; it’s closer to Clint’s type of fear. Trauma. I – recognize it, to a degree.”

Steve took in a deep breath and let it out heavily, clearing his lungs. Of the three of them, Bruce was always the level-headed one, the one to bring their arguments back to the point when their bickering had swung out on wild tangents. In the bedroom, it was always Bruce who watched, who directed the action in the bed. Part of it, yes, was because Bruce didn’t want to risk the Hulk coming out in the middle of an argument (or sex, which would be markedly worse), but part of it was simply that Bruce seemed to be reserved as a person. Bruce knew Tony had an overactive libido, and while Bruce had no sexual attraction to Steve he felt attraction to Tony, and had helped Tony convince Steve to the relationship. Sometimes Tony would just be with Bruce, giving him slow and easy blowjobs that wouldn’t call up the Hulk, sometimes Steve would watch Tony give Bruce pleasure, sometimes Tony was with Bruce and Steve both, with Bruce watching and getting himself off and directing their actions on the bed, and sometimes it was just Steve and Tony. Steve didn’t mind the unorthodox relationship (though, when Tony had first approached him, Steve had thought Tony had been trying to cheat on Bruce. It had taken some time to figure out the dynamic between the three of them) and found himself welcoming Tony’s quickness of mind as well as Bruce’s cautioning mind. They worked well together.

Well. When Tony wasn’t shutting them out.

“He was scared of  _me_ , Bruce,” Steve said quietly.

Bruce bit at his lip thoughtfully. “Not just you,” he said slowly. “Thor as well.”

“Yes, but—”

“From experience,” Bruce interrupted, and it was rare enough to have Bruce interrupt  _anyone_  that Steve immediately shut up and waited to hear Bruce out. “From experience, when you associate strength and power with strong males that are taller than you, it doesn’t matter if the man that’s taller than you is a good friend, not in the middle of a flashback or an episode. It only matters that someone who is markedly larger and more physically imposing than you are is in the room with you.”

Steve smiled crookedly, the sentiment not reaching his eyes. “I may not know War Machine all that well, but I’ve seen the suit in action. He’s—”

“A closer friend than we are. Tony’s known him since they were in college together, and he’s known us for a year.” Bruce returned the wry smile. “I’m no happier that he won’t let me in, or at least speak with us, but fear has no rationality behind it. That’s the point, after all.”

The elevator at the end of the hall dinged. Both of them turned to look, Steve trying to school his face into something approximating welcome, and Bruce leaned back against the glass panels, putting his hands in his jeans pockets.

Thor stepped out of the elevator, leading the way in front of Natasha and the man who must be James Rhodes. He wasn’t a very tall man, though he was definitely larger than Bruce. His eyes were sharp, but worried, and he moved briskly to the panel.

“Thor told me that it was some kind of spell that brought up bad memories?” Rhodes asked as he looked into the workshop.

“Yes,” Steve said, motioning at Thor. “It was some kind of spell, fired at all of us, though my shield protected me and Natasha managed to get out of range. It didn’t affect the Hulk. Clint is still a bit shook up, but Thor’s fine. Tony’s the worst off and we hypothesize it’s because he’s refusing our help and support, though with magic you can never really tell the reasons why it wears off of one person faster than another.”

Rhodes smiled crookedly. “Well. I’ll do my best to help, Captain.”

“If you don’t mind my mentioning,” Bruce said calmly, but there was an edge in his voice that made Rhodes turn from the security panel and face him, “it took you considerably less than twenty minutes to get here.”

That made Rhodes rub the back of his neck sheepishly. “Yeah, well… Tony outfitted the War Machine to go at least half as fast as he can in the Iron Man armor, and Pepper had called me right after you got off the phone. So I came as fast as I could, which is pretty fast, considering. I can’t stay long, though – I’m supposed to be training some new recruits, using the armor.”

Bruce glanced at Steve, and Steve shrugged his shoulders.

“Can we get an explanation?” Bruce asked, and he was hesitant. Steve understood the hesitance – this was an invasion of privacy, no matter which way you looked at it.

Rhodes squared his shoulders and took in a deep breath. “Let me see what I can do for Tony, and then let me ask him. I don’t want to give away his secrets.”

“Aye, as it should be,” Thor rumbled. “We hope you may aid Tony. He is very dear to all of us.”

Rhodes smiled faintly and moved back to the keypad. He tapped in his personal code, letting it get his fingerprints, and stepped into the room.

“We’ll leave you two here,” Natasha murmured. “There’ll be coffee and food upstairs, in the stove – you know Clint cooks when he’s nervous.”

“Thanks, Natasha,” Bruce replied.

Steve didn’t watch Thor and Natasha leave; he kept his eyes on Rhodes, who moved into the workshop slowly, obviously speaking – but the glass was soundproofed, so whatever he was saying, Steve couldn’t catch what they were saying. Tony had stopped flitting about like a caffeinated hummingbird and was standing in the middle of the workshop, trembling; but as Rhodes took slow, deliberate steps forward, Tony began to relax. Finally, Rhodes was right up next to Tony, still speaking, and one hand went out to lightly run against the upper part of Tony’s shoulder.

Tony’s shoulders slumped, all tension disappearing from the lines of his body, and he leaned forward, pressing his forehead against Rhodes’ shoulder. He began to shudder, and Rhodes’ arms came up to wrap around Tony’s shoulder.

It hurt Steve, to know that Rhodes could give Tony something that he could not, and that just made Steve feel guilty for feeling hurt in the first place. After all, Tony’s health – physical, emotional, and mental – was more important than Steve’s feelings.

“It’s alright to feel jealous, a bit,” Bruce said.

That made Steve twitch, and he moved away from the panel to see Bruce watching him with understanding eyes. “I shouldn’t feel jealous,” he replied. “He’s chosen us – he’s with us, now. Rhodes can help him feel better, and so he’s the best choice. The best decision.”

“I don’t think that’s helping you any more than it’s helping me calm the other guy,” Bruce mused, but before Steve could question that, the glass panel slid open and Rhodes stood there, Tony tucked under one arm, his head down and refusing to look at either of them.

Bruce took a step forward, hand reach out, and Tony twitched. Rhodes gave Bruce a sympathetic smile and murmured, “Let’s get Tony something to eat? And then we can sit in the living room and talk. Okay, Tones?”

It took a few moments before Tony nodded jerkily.

Bruce and Steve fell back, watching as Rhodes subtly put enough pressure on Tony’s shoulders to let Tony know where to go, but not enough as to make Tony feel like he had no choice. Tony’s fingers bunched in the hem of Rhodes’ shirt, but they weren’t trembling all that much. Maybe Rhodes managed to break the hold of that spell, and Tony was regaining his equilibrium.

In the elevator, Tony leaned against Rhodey, and Steve stood the farthest away, trying to be respectful for the aversion Tony seemed to have to him at the moment. It was an awkward ride all around, and Steve kept his eyes moving, trying not to stare obviously at Tony and instead find the paneling or handles far more interesting. It didn’t work, though – just as the elevator dinged, Steve’s eyes landed on Tony and saw Tony staring back. Steve winced slightly, and Tony echoed the move, though he smiled ever so slightly – as if to say ‘what a fine mess, huh, Rogers?’

Rhodes tugged Tony out of the elevator, into the hallway that leads to the kitchen. At the actual kitchen doors, Tony stopped dead and Rhodes stopped as well, waiting patiently. Steve could guess what was the matter – everyone was still in the kitchen, and they could see Tony as plainly as Tony can see them, and Tony’s always been intensely private about his personal hurts, more likely to lick his wounds in peace than search out help for dealing with it.

But either Tony made up his mind that he was going to face this, or Rhodes had convinced him it’d be fine, because Tony moved forward hesitantly, sitting gingerly in the seat farthest from Thor at the table. To Thor’s credit, he didn’t look up or make any sudden motions; he was reading from one of the books he had borrowed from Tony’s library.

“Are you hungry?” Clint asked, waving at the dishes in the sink – from the smell of it, Clint’s made some kind of meat and curry dish, the kind that Bruce and Natasha loved.

Tony took in a deep breath and nodded. “Yeah,” he says, in a hoarse, cracked voice, but it was the first word they heard from him since he’d gotten out of SHIELD’s medical two days ago, and it obviously loosened the tension in the air.

“Want something to drink?” Bruce asked, hovering at the doorway in front of Steve. Steve itched to do something for Tony, anything at all – but Bruce needed the reassurance too, especially considering the very close connection he had with Tony.

“Scotch?” Tony muttered, and before he could think about it, Steve was frowning at Tony. When Tony’s head came up, catching Steve’s facial expression, he froze for half a heartbeat before the ghost of a smile crept onto his face. “Or not. Cap doesn’t approve.”

“You stopped drinking, Tones?” Rhodes asked, and he wasn’t directly next to Tony but he was in touching distance. “How come you didn’t bother to tell me?”

Tony huffed a little, sounding more and more like himself as he folded his arms on the table and rested his chin on the upper wrist. “I’m sure I told you. We spoke just last week, after all. Almost two months sober.”

“That’s awesome, Tony,” Rhodes said, grinning widely. “Did you tell Pepper? No, wait – Pepper knew, of course.”

Bruce bit his lip before interjecting cautiously, “Something to drink?”

“Water,” Tony sighed. “And let’s… get this over with.”

“You need not reveal any secrets that you are uncomfortable with exposing,” Thor rumbled, still not looking up from his book. “You have gone above and beyond much of what is expected of you, and let no one say otherwise.”

There was absolute silence in the kitchen, and then Tony’s mouth twitched up in a lopsided, slightly cynical but mostly grateful, smile. “Thanks, Thor. But it’s… it’s been awhile. And, hell, you guys don’t _need_  to know about it…” he trailed off, looking over at Bruce and Steve, obviously exempting them from that sentence. After a moment, he cleared his throat, nodded at the glass of water Bruce set down next to his elbow, and continued, “But maybe it’s… time to talk about it anyway. It’s nothing – grand, or dramatic.”

“Tony,” Rhodes interrupted, voice soft and gently chiding.

Tony shuddered and closed his eyes briefly, and Natasha made a small sound of distress.

“No – Natasha, it’s not what – okay, maybe it is, but – just let me finish, okay?”

Natasha, looking very pale and composed, nodded sharply and stared ahead.

Looking down at the table, Tony tapped his index and middle finger against the wood and said softly, “I went to college pretty young. Everyone around me was legal, or a year from being legal, and I was a short kid. Fifteen just makes you shorter, you know? It was my second semester in college and I already had enough credits and exemptions to put me at the beginning of my third year. I was going to turn sixteen at the end of the semester, and I was feeling worldly, so I went to a party.” Tony swallowed hard but continued on, voice so flat that it hurt Steve’s ears to hear his expressive voice turned into monotone. “Suffice to say, I didn’t have the stamina for alcohol then as I do now. And, well… Rhodey found me. He was my – my roommate, a friend, a kinda bodyguard because my father had paid him to watch over my sorry ass – anyway. He, uh, he grabbed the other guy off of me. Took me to the hospital. Kept everything – kept it all out of the papers. Not that it mattered, because Ti – because the guy tried to blackmail my father with the fact that his son was gay and took it up the ass.”

Bruce turned his back to the kitchen table and grabbed the countertop, breathing hard. Everyone turned, wary, as his skin began to tint green.

Without thinking, Steve moved up to Bruce’s shoulder and squeezed – hard. “You need to remain in control, Bruce. Okay?”

For a long moment, everyone held their breath, the seams of Bruce’s shirt straining and pigment swirling beneath the skin. Then Bruce nodded shortly and closed his eyes, forcing his breathing to remain calm.

“I’m – uh – I’m so—”

“You apologize for what you told us, Tony, and I’m going to pin your balls to your chair with a staple gun,” Natasha said, voice chilly. “We’re your friends. Did you honestly expect us to remain unaffected—”

“Who is this base coward, that would harm a child in such a way?” Thor asked, and the fact that his voice was softer than all the other voices made his anger all the more apparent.

Tony licked his lips. “Look, it was – taken care of. Dad made it go away, and Rhodey – Rhodey showed me that it wasn’t – Rhodey took care of me.”

That sounded suspiciously like Rhodes had taken advantage of Tony when he was in a vulnerable place, and obviously Rhodes was aware of how it sounded because he didn’t look surprised when Clint, Natasha, and Steve all turned to glower at him.

“I’m not going to justify my past with you guys,” he said, and his voice was steely, uncompromising. “What Tony and I had – it’s in the past. It’s over, and done with, and maybe if I had to make the same choice again, I’d have waited longer – but I would have still gone ahead and showed him that it wasn’t love or sex, what had happened in that bathroom.”

“He was underage!” Clint snarled, and Steve spared a brief thought towards the fact that both Natasha and Clint seemed deeply shaken by Tony’s story, which indicated something else lying beneath the surface – but right now, he walked to the table and crouched down so that he wasn’t looming so much over Tony.

“What you had, with Rhodes – was it your decision?”

Tony flushed, and this was an embarrassed flush, not one of fear or pain. “I ended up crawling into his bed naked because he wouldn’t go as fast as I wanted it to,” he mumbled. “Hell yeah it was my decision.”

Steve held Tony’s gaze for a long moment, searching for a hint that Rhodes had mistreated Tony in any way, and then leaned back a bit to look up at Rhodes.

The lieutenant colonel held his gaze steadily.

Clearing his throat, Steve looked back at Tony and said gently, “Alright, then. Thank you for trusting us, and telling us. You had us worried, you know. You didn’t talk at all. Made us think maybe the spell was doing something different to you than to us.”

“Yeah,” Tony said, voice weak and tired. He rubbed at his face and said just as gently as Steve had, “But I couldn’t drag myself out of the memory. The workshop was safe, but I was pretty – pretty drunk at the party, and you could have all just been partygoers for all I knew. But – thank you, for calling Rhodey in.”

Bruce stepped up from behind Steve, startling him a bit, to put his hand on Tony’s shoulder. “I’m glad you’re okay, Tony.”

“Aye, you are one of our most stalwart warriors and a fine man. It gladdens me that you have met this and triumphed.”

Natasha gave Tony a cool look, but her voice was warm when she said, “I think I speak for all of us when I say we’re glad to have you back with us, Tony.”

“Are you gonna eat this food or not?” Clint asked, and that made Tony laugh, his voice stronger and more like himself.

Rhodes sat down at the table and ate with them, though Thor kept giving him suspicious looks and Bruce was a lot more touchy with Tony than he normally ever was. Everyone else had eaten except Tony, Bruce, and Steve, though Bruce seemed too distracted to really eat. Steve, however, had a fast metabolism and so sat down to eat as well.

Finally, Rhodes stood up and ruffled Tony’s hair. “You be careful, you hear? Don’t hesitate to call. Any of you,” he added, addressing the room at large.

“Thanks, honey bear,” Tony said, smiling impishly. “You know where to find me. Biggest, brightest fucking building this side of New York, after all.”

Rhodes laughed and stood up, Steve standing as well. “I’ll walk you to the door?”

“Flight deck, actually – I’ve got the War Machine docked there.”

With an easy nod, Steve altered his direction and walked with Rhodes out to the small landing pad that held the Quinjet and allowed Thor to land when he came back from Asgard, now that the bridge was once more fixed. As Rhodes began to strap himself into the armor, Steve put his hands in his pockets and said casually, “So, this guy?”

“Ruined,” Rhodes grunted, buckling the legs on and standing up to lock the pieces in place. “I took Tony to the hospital, then took him back to his house – he could afford to miss a week or two of school, he was smart enough that it wouldn’t even slow him down – and then went back to campus and beat the ever-loving shit out of him. Then, when Tony turned sixteen, he got drunk one night and just tore apart that guy’s life electronically. Funds, records, everything – wiped him from the system. Don’t even know if the guy’s alive anymore – he dropped out of college, disappeared from the society pages altogether, when he and Tony had been the two darling teenagers of the press at the time.”

Steve supposed it was good that this person had already been dealt with, that Tony had gotten his own back, but it left him feeling oddly dissatisfied. He wanted to find this guy and rip him apart, limb from limb. Wanted to show this guy that no one –  _no one_  – messed with Tony Stark without retribution.

“Though I will say this—” Rhodes said slowly, and Steve looked up to see that Rhodes had put on the arm and chest pieces, and had the helmet on but the faceplate up. “Tony’s dad – Howard wasn’t the best, by any means. I think he did love his kid, in his own way, but he sure as hell never showed it. And he didn’t like Tony being gay. Said it didn’t make him a man, made him a wuss – and worse things. Told him that he needed to be tough. It’s taken Tony a long time to get his dad’s voice out of his head when he’s looking for relationships, and the fact that he’s in one with you and Banner? It means a lot. And you mean a lot to him.”

At that, Steve smiled. “He means a lot to us.”

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [It's No Magic Cure (But You Can Call Me Anytime Remix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1258291) by [a_q](https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_q/pseuds/a_q)




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